Fantasy Book Club discussion

It just occurred to me that some of you might have questions you'd like to directly ask me. So feel free to post any questions you might have.

Don't bother asking anything that might be a spoiler for the rest of the series, as I won't answer those.

Michael - thanks for writing such a great book and making yourself available to the readers. I'd love to hear about how you developed the religious context and churches represented in Elan. Where myths and religions did you draw inspiration from?

Libby wrote: (previously) "I see a mix of Greek mythology, Judeo-Christian and Roman Catholic history and beliefs. "

I think you see well.

A lot of the world of Elan took form as I was reading text books on the history of Europe between the fall of Rome and the discovery of the New World, particularly the era of Charlemagne. As you know the Roman Catholic Church was a big part of that history.

I also drew a bit from Norse mythology and from Greek, which you no doubt noticed in the action of the Zeus-like Erebus.

As for the church structure, I drew heavily on Medieval convention, but altered it to suit the needs of the story. I should caution that while there are a great many similarities, the Church of Nyphron is not the Christian church.

Through out the novel I used familiar terms merely as a means of sparing the reader the effort of learning a new vocabulary. I could have named the elves and dwarves something else, but then I would need to spend pages explaining these races. I could have created a whole different structure for the church and nobility, calling rulers something else, but it was not my goal to create a new and completely original world. My goal is to tell a story, and the easiest way of doing this was to utilize pre-existing notions. Swords are still swords, armor still armor, people live in houses.

The Roman Catholic Church is a fairly well recognized structure and suited to the time period. So when I use the term "church bishop" I don't have to explain what that means anymore than I have to explain "king" or "emperor."

As for the belief system itself, much of that relies on the plot of the story, which I can't go into.

The language of the protagonists - well all the characters really, is very 'clean'. A bit interesting considering that part of the development occurs in a brothel, and not to mention the professions of the characters. What prompted you to avoid 'street' language and/or profanity? Was it a personal moral choice? Perhaps to make the book accessible to a younger audience?

To be honest profanity in a medieval setting to me sounds false--the words sound too modern. I am reading a sword and sorcery book at the moment (one of four) which uses s**t and f**k and it just sounds wrong.

There were times over the course of the series where I really wanted to use stronger cuss words, but by that point, since I hadn't used them prior I thought it would be most inconsistent.

Instead, I solved the problem by using archaic or foreign curse terms such as "git" , "bugger" , "sod" or "bullocks" ets. To me these simply sound more appropriate to the setting.

Also while I did not write this as a YA novel, I suppose in the back of my mind I did expect my daughter might read it so I did shy away from anything really offensive.

Lastly, I personally don't care for profanity in novels. In modern contemporary stories, where the author is establishing a character, I can see its place, but in a fictitious world I don't feel it adds to the work.

But no, it was not a marketing decision. I never intended to publish this book. I wrote merely what I would like to read, so it reflects my taste in a story.

Michael wrote: "Lastly, I personally don't care for profanity in novels. In modern contemporary stories, where the author is establishing a character, I can see its place, but in a fictitious world I don't feel it adds to the work."

At last someone who sees the light! :)

I recently read The Blade Itself and while it was a great gripping gritty fantasy tale, it had way too much modern profanity in it. Since I enjoyed the story so much, I just skimmed across the obscenities. But it still left a bad taste in my mouth.

Thank you for not following the crowd and succumbing to the profanity band wagon. :)

It is challenging writing comments here because I don’t know how many people here follow my blog. Supposedly, only three people are “following” it, but clearly that’s not true as more than that have already referenced it. Given that I have already covered a lot of the topics being discussed here, I run the risk of repeating myself. Add to that recent interviews I’ve done, and quite frankly I’ve lost track of what I’ve said to whom.

I believe this is the comment I made that Henry is referring to:
“I would also keep the magic and fantasy creatures to a minimum. Dragons, magic etc, have a tendency to come off as hokey, and such things are better kept understated in order to build a greater sense of mystery, fear and suspense. People’s own imagination works the best for such things. Individual viewers won’t picture something in their own mind that is silly to them.”

Henry writes: “My question then is how do you hit on the right mix? How do you decide what do you want on your story and what you don't?”

First off, I don’t know if I hit the “right” mix. I’m reading comments here to find that out. But if you’re asking how I decided to include what I did…

First, while I could have created whole new races and creatures—and I considered this—I decided not to because that would involve a whole new level of complexity and a need for extensive explanation. If I had Braniths and Vorgerns, I would need to explain what they are, but if I use elves and dwarves, most of the work is already done and instead of explaining what they are I can focus on how they are different. This allows me to skip a step and get on with the story faster. Given the complexity of the story, this was needed.

I picked elves and dwarves because they are universal elements of fairy stories that have been around for centuries. No author owns them. I would never, for example, use hobbits or dementors. I am using goblins, once more a very generic fairy tale creature, but I will not use “orcs” because once again, this is specific to one author—in this case, Tolkien—and I consider that proprietary (although several other writers have adopted them.) Just a side note here—my goblins, the Ba Ran Ghazel, are a bit different from those you might have seen before, they aren’t your lovably little green tikes, and will hopefully scare the crap out of you.

So that is how I decided what not to use, but as to the question, how do I decide what to use, that is easy—whatever the story demands. That is the case with everything. I don’t sit down and think it would be cool to have a dragon in my story and then write one in. If the story required a dragon, then it would be there. As it happens, the series arc is an extremely tight weave, meaning that nearly every thread of the plot is linked to a dozen others. There isn’t room for random elements.

Lastly, I did seek to create a story that felt “real.” (But not overly gritty.) I didn’t want it to come off as a cartoon, or fairy tale. Too many supernatural elements , thrown in too soon I think makes it hard for a reader to accept the world as believable. The more like the real world, or a historical setting, the easier it is to accept it. Then, once the place and characters are set in the reader’s mind as plausible, I can deviate slowly and hopefully the reader will follow me without baulking too much. This is why nothing supernatural happens until they reach Gutaira and then, the characters are just as disturbed by the strangeness as the reader. The reader then becomes one of the characters, not a reader following the actions of people very different from themselves, people who have no trouble believing in dragons and magic.

At least that is the plan. The jury is still out.

Michael wrote: "To be honest profanity in a medieval setting to me sounds false--the words sound too modern. I am reading a sword and sorcery book at the moment (one of four) which uses s**t and f**k and it just sounds."

I agree completely. I think the same applies to science fiction novels set in the far future. Swear words are very specific to an era or place, so using current profanities in novels set in other eras or worlds is very jarring and unrealistic.

Though I don't use much myself, profanity in books aimed at an adult audience doesn't bother me at all. In fact, I find it makes the characters and setting much more realistic, even if it's a fantasy or sci-fi setting. People cuss--it's what they do. As long as the level of profane language matches the character type of the person uttering it, I find it undisturbing. Okay, I admit it. I love the word "frak"! It's frakkin' amazing! ;-) For those of you who are not Battlestar Galactica fans, I apologize for that inside reference.

Michael, I have a question about the sword fighting scenes. Your descriptions are so detailed. Is your knowledge firsthand? If not, how did you go about researching the ins and outs of swordplay?

I would love to be able to say I am an Olympian fencer, or even an anachronistic reenactment buff. Truth is, I don't know a thing about sword fighting. Everything in TCC was invented.

Battle scenes are very hard to write. Try to be too detailed and they become confusing and lose that edge of excitement, too vague and I think readers feel cheated. Also, much of swordplay is repetitive and doesn't lend itself well to literature. What might look fantastic on film, doesn't work in books.

My thought then was to provide just enough suggestion to make the reader feel they were seeing something, keep the pace of the action, and allow the reader to fill in the rest. Most of this was done with verb choice. What is a "flurry?" I have no idea, but it sounds like something impressive and fast, and I am guessing everyone saw something different.

For Avempartha, due to the plot, I had to actually do a great deal of research on sword fighting. And read extensively on the subject, but for this first book I completely faked it. Still, even after learning more, I found that I was still limited by pace and clarity. In writing a sword battle, I learned, less is often more.

I have a question, Michael. Does the term "Riyria" refer only to Royce and Hadrian, or does it also include their extended associates from the Rose and Thorn? And for that matter, where does the word come from?

Riyria is one of the few words in the book I actually pondered and struggled over. I wanted it to have a certain sound and a certain look on the page (for those people who--like my daughter--don't bother to sound the word out and just register it by sight.)

The word is fictitious.

In the world of Elan, Riyria is elvish for "two", "a team" or "a bond." Royce, who knows a few words of elvish chose it as the name of their "business," as it would mean nothing to most people, but aptly describes himself and Hadrian's association.

The name was ascribed to them long before Albert, Mason and even Gwen joined the organization, however it has grown to include them, yet it is sort of like New York, New York. There is Riyria, (that includes everyone in the organization) but within that group Riyria, at its core, really is code for Royce and Hadrian.

The word is pronounced Rye-ear-ah. I actually had a focus group of people and asked them to sound out the word using different spellings, and when I found the right one I ran it through a dictionary pronunciation software, the kind that speaks, and it confirmed the sound I wanted.

Crazy sometimes what writers do.

Thanks for that explanation. It makes sense, and is how it seemed to represent them in the novel...

Thank you for telling us how you pronounce 'Riyria', which is not how I heard it in my head. Now I know for sure.

Leslie wrote: "Thank you for telling us how you pronounce 'Riyria', which is not how I heard it in my head. Now I know for sure."

Michael - could you give us the pronouncation of Esrahaddon? I've got it in my head exactly as it's written but I'd like to know if that's correct.

Ez-rah-hod-don
Not too many people get this wrong. Avempartha is pretty easy too. Most of my words are pretty phonetic, but there are a few that people will pronounce different than I do.

Nyphron (pronounced) "Nef-ron" I have heard pronounced "Nye-fron" which I found strange the first time I heard it--only because I have always heard it one way for five years.

Gilarabrywn is a word my wife pronounced as "Gil-brought-ton" for years.

The Galewyr river I pronounce as: "Gale-whar"

Avryn: Ave-wren
Dalhgren: Doll-grin

How did Robin get Gil-brought-ton from Gilarabrywn?!!
The word seems like Welsh Gaelic. I'm no expert on Welsh, and I know the English spelling often has no relation to the pronunciation, but I 'hear' this word as Gil-ahra-burn in my head. Hehe, just goes to show how subjective this sort of thing can be! The author always has the final say, though.

That's nothing, my daughter refers to DeWitt as Dwight, insisting it sounds better.

For years Robin also refered to Dahlgren as Da-hal-gren, but I think she mostly did this to irritate me.

You would think Avempartha is easy to pronounce, unless you live in my head. In which case, you would understand that, somehow, I get the "p" and "th" confused so that, unless I am actually looking at the word, I end up thinking/saying Avemtharpa. Always. Without fail. I have no freakin idea why. (In order to spell it correctly in this post, I had to look up the title.)

I was at my first book signing for Avempartha this last weekend at a Border's books and over the loud speaker I heard the announcement:

"Today we are welcoming Michael Sullivan, author of Avemparth-er-a."

I looked at the manager and he shrugged. "She said it right the first time," he told me.

Leslie wrote: "How did Robin get Gil-brought-ton from Gilarabrywn?!!

It was done mainly to needle Michael. I made it sound like a breakfast sausage.

Henry wrote: "When the guys and Myron were sitting in front of the gate, was that a sort of...reference to the Lord of The Rings and the Gate of Moria "

Yes it was. The whole dialog where Royce chastises Alric for suggesting the door could be opened by speaking a word, was an homage to Moria. My way of letting the reader know--yes, I realize this is similar, but no I'm not going that way with it.

There actually was an even more specific pun in Avempartha, but I felt it was a little too over the top and I cut it from the book before it went to press.

Michael wrote: "Yes it was. The whole dialog where Royce ch..."

I appreciate that you can acknowledge when you are borrowing a story device. It really gets on my nerves when authors insist their ideas were original when they were clearly influenced by other works. That being said, it is even better that you can go on to make the device uniquely yours. I especially like the trapped faces - yikes.